From Abe R. Rated

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Tag Archives: film making

When I first submitted my independent film Woggie (2012) to IMDB at the end of 2010, there were 12,500 movie titles in production. Now in 2013 there are over 25,000 films listed as in production, talk about competition on a planet brought together with the internet, affordable HD cameras, and complex editing software that caters to the novice. I made an independent film in Hollywood at a time when I could of made a movie anywhere simply because I am a nostalgic fool that loves Hollywood. My film in no way competes with A Good Day to Die Hard but I felt like John McClane at times making a movie where the studio system rules the land.
During production of my film actors would pull me aside and ask for custom made demo reels and advice on how to make their own movies. Usually I had a story board in one hand, a camera in the other, and was wearing a dinosaur costume, I was simply too busy. I finally have enough time to lay out some free simple techniques an actor or filmmaker can use to get started networking and publicizing themselves in an industry quickly evolving into a global digital monster.

Experience:
If you live in Idaho, stay in Idaho, get involved with local filmmakers, act and make movies about living in Idaho, that way you have a chance of creating something different, new and attention grabbing. After you have a few unique films in your credits you can go to Los Angeles or New York and will be ahead of most actors. My favorite Steven Spielberg movies are the ones he made in his backyard as a kid because the battle scenes he envisioned then eventually became Saving Private Ryan.

Internet Presence:
Twitter and Facebook are great basic platforms and necessary but even the old lady that lives up the street from me is on Twitter and Facebook.

Here are free ways to add your headshots, biography, and Filmography to the internet and increase your exposure:

Filmcommunity.com is a social networking site for the film industry, I recently signed up and was amazed at all the options for sharing my film and music. The site is user friendly with easy to follow instructions on how to upload video, pictures, and music to your profile. There is a page where all members can embed their movie trailers and a page for members to share their music. You can display a live Twitter feed on your profile page, post status updates, link to your website and films, promote events, and most impressively you get a fully functional blog to write posts about your filmmaking adventures. You must sign up for a free membership to view profiles and interact with other members.

Webs.com is an awesome free website provider. I need another website like a hole in the head but found myself building one at 2am on Webs.com and couldn’t believe how user friendly and easy to navigate this website builder was. You get a large selection of templates and a well designed easy to use control panel for adding pictures, video, text, and social sharing buttons. You can create multiple web pages and even add custom HTML code. The site you create will be search engine friendly and is set up with an option for adding Google Analytics. A free mobile version is also available. Since this service is free ads may appear on your website and be sure to read the terms of service about the content you put on the site. Simply adding headshots, a demo real, and a filmography are ideal for this service, you can always upgrade to remove the ads.